The present invention relates to a plastic card used for various kinds of cards such as a credit card, a cash card, a debit card, etc. and more particularly to a plastic card suitable for an embossing finish.
In recent years, card type storage media such as credit cards, ID cards, cash cards, debit cards include IC cards which contain therein IC (Integrated Circuit) chips such as a microprocessor, a RAM (Random Access Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), etc. as well as magnetic cards capable of magnetically recording information. The IC cards include non-contact type IC cards capable of receiving data from and transmitting data to a transmitting and receiving part of a reading device in a non-contact manner. The IC cards further include contact type IC cards capable of receiving data from and transmitting data to the transmitting and receiving part of the reading device in a contact manner. In any type of the IC cards, more information can be stored in the IC chips contained therein than in the magnetic cards, and further, the information can be advantageously stored in a state of higher safety than in the magnetic cards.
Most of the IC cards are made of a resin material such as plastic. In the IC chips contained in the IC cards, a card information such as personal names, registration numbers, code numbers, etc. are stored. The information stored in the IC cards can be read out by various kinds of reading devices. On the IC cards, the card information is partly displayed on the surfaces of the cards by what is called an embossing finish that, for instance, personal names or registration numbers are displayed by stamping embossed characters.
As materials for these cards, a vinyl chloride resin has been hitherto mainly used. The vinyl chloride card formed by the vinyl chloride resin is excellent in embossing characteristics, however, low in strength to repetitive bending. For instance, when a user employs the vinyl chloride card, the card may possibly crack. Thus, a card material has been studied instead of vinyl chloride, however, an adequately satisfactory material has not been found yet under existing circumstance.